The art of patience, and the life of a retired 23 year old

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Happy Monday back home my lovely family and friends! I sit here on this beautiful Monday afternoon in Tel Aviv, with the view of the Meditteranen Sea and my iced coffee in hand. Excuse me, it is not iced coffee, this Café Mersand informed me there were out of iced coffee but can make me cold espresso with milk and ice....so it's quite similar. Tastes just as satisfying if you ask me 😊 Since I have last blogged I have begun my volunteering. Here's the update on my volunteering; I have "Resigned" from my volunteer site at the Kadimah Youth Center because I spoke with this about a hand full of my Israeli friends, and they warned me this is an unsafe neighborhood and that I should not go there, especially by myself as a young woman. My volunteering there would have been during the day, but I still took the advice of my Israeli friends because they are the experts of their own country, aren't they? It was quite an easy change to find a new placement, I contacted my program, made a few emails, and I was on my way to a new volunteer site in no time. I found a volunteer placement to help teach English to Israeli students with ADD. I work with a woman, Daniella Aviv who is a very inspirational woman and teacher and I am happy to have been placed to work with here. (If interested--here is here website; she has written her own curriculum in teaching English, and it is also now being translated into German to teach German to English. It's quite fascinating and I am inspired by her...It's great! www.avivenglish.com ) I am also lucky enough to be able to catch a ride with Daniella to the volunteering, because it is about 20 minutes outside of Tel Aviv. She lives very close to me, and I'm able to walk and meet her at a corner for a ride....it's works out quite well. I'm sorry to say but I have forgotten the name of the city we drove to yesterday to volunteer. She actually rents out a room in a center (at this place http://www.wizo.org/wizo-historywhich is also a very fascinating organization in Israel, and located in other counties as well.)

So, the breakdown of my volunteering is into 3 sections. We arrived there at 3, and set up in preparation for the first group of students who came at 4. I was impressed with how easily manageable these children (she mentioned they had ADD.) It shows how much changing an environment of a student can make a positive change. The first group of students were 4th/5th graders. Daniella has a teaching strategy where she has the students work on their own, rather than her lecturing to the class from the front of the room. She walks around and guides the students as needed. Her instruction to them is in Hebrew of course, and they are not fluent in English yet. My task was to listen to the students read English words out loud, play flashcard games with them (they pick up a card and name the object in English), and help them to write sentences. It's very interesting how Daniella teaches too--she teaches only the SOUNDS of the English letters rather than the letter names. This is a positive strategy because it helps children learn sounds right from the beginning, rather than making it complicated later on. The next group of students were younger--1st/2nd graders and this group needed a little more management and guidance. I did the same with this group, and even more flashcard games. The last group was the oldest group and very self-guided. I helped with a few sentences for these students and some flashcards again. The day ends at 7:30, and I was back to my apartment by 8:15. It takes a lot of patience to work with these students because our only way to communicate is through the words that they know in English, or through simple sign language, or, of course through Daniella translating.

I'm happy to finally have started my volunteering however and look forward to the next time....which is not until Wednesday. Which brings me to my title, the life of a retired 23 year old. I have quite a hand full of free time while I am in Israel, more than I imagined I would. So far, I simply wake up each day and figure out from there what to do with the rest of my day. It's nice to have a large amount of free time in such a beautiful country. Today I joined the gym just a few blocks away from my apartment. It was a bit spendy--but worth it to me since I'll have a large amount of free time! I do have a beautiful beach to work out on but it gets VERY hot very quick here, and the gym is nice atmosphere to be in and will make me feel better about all the goodies I'm eating here... 😊 I've decided I must take full advantage of my time and I am going to look into some guided tours, and probably do a hand full more of sight seeing on my own. I also look forward to the weekends when my Israeli friends are free from all of their University work to come hang out with me!

Prior to my volunteering yesterday, I met up with my friend Zohar for a brief get together! It was quick, as I had to go to my volunteering and she was scrambling to get ready to go to Germany (for a year!). Zohar lived with our family for 2 summers, so we had a lot of memories to laugh about and it was good to catch up with her! I enjoyed my first official Israeli style breakfast with her. This included eggs, muselli (yogurt and gornoala), bread/honey/cream cheese, and coffee. Around us in the restaurant sat a hand full of retired people sipping coffee and passing mid morning hours....only to prove my point that I am living the life of a retired person 😉 I was skyping with my mom and dad about all of my free time and they suggest I write a children's book while I am in Israel....Is this the turn of my career switch? I must say, all this free time truly allows me to breathe and enjoy every moment I have...life is a beauty my friends! I know all of you are probably reading this as you are at work or running around in the no-time-rushed-American life we all live, but if you can, take some time to yourself and relax for a few minutes today...you can thank me later 😊 I've found that the Israeli lifestyle is (in my opinion) much less rushed and it's a big relief to witness and live this. I don't say that simply because I am so free here, I say that because I watch the movements and atmosphere of my surroundings. (NOT the driving though, this is not relaxed. I do admit the Israeli style driving is...risky. I'll leave it at that. Glad I can walk and use the train most of the time!)

Untill next time, sababa&kisses...

Ms. Sarah

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Comments

[gandg]

Keep enjoying the life of a retired 23 year old abd if course your voluunteer job, Glad that you changed locations. Be safe! Love, g a nd g

[carlene schoenfeld]

Sarah it sounds like you learn alot from this teacher at your new volunteer site. enjoy your stay love you -mom